BAY AREA BUSINESS PHONE SYSTEMS BLOG

Over the past few months, I’ve been diligently working on TeleDynamic’s business and marketing plans for 2015 to best serve our Bay Area business telecommunications clients. During this process, I've made several observations, which I believe will lead to a complete shift in business practices and technology. I’d like to share my predictions with you in hopes that they spur thoughts and internal conversations of how changes in business & technology can affect your organization in 2015.

Microsoft Server 2003 End-of-Life:There are currently 24 million servers running Mircosoft's 2003 version. Moving forward with an update will eat up major IT dollars through mid-year and will also force business discussions about migrating to the Cloud.

Your IT Vendor Must Evolve: Traditional IT vendors will need to become proficient with Cloud applications, technologies, and support if they wish to remain valuable to their customers. Is your IT vendor evolving or staying stagnant?

Big Brands Matter Less:The newest companies are developing the most innovative products and services in the market today. In fact, a large entrenched brand can be thought of as old and slow. Look for new companies to lead the surge in technological innovations.

Smaller Companies Win: Cisco, HP, IBM, and Microsoft are too big to be truly innovative, as disruptive technologies become more and more common. Incremental change isn’t fast enough and smaller isn’t only better, it’s imperative. This shall also be true for SMB companies as we can embrace technologies faster than the "Big Guys."

Open Source Accelerates Innovation: Companies don’t have the time or resources to develop programs and platforms from scratch. The benefits of Open Source software are impressive and allows platforms to receive innovative new developments in an instant. This means the speed of innovation is just as fast as our ability to keep up with it! Look for Open Source to become an even more valuable software development option in 2015.

Simple is Better: Traditional software has become bloated and complex while business continues to move faster using a multitude of devices, services, and tools. Everything needs to be easy and work everywhere. Look for software and technology to utilize the KISS methodology.... Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Software as a Service Ends Product Upgrade Cycles: While businesses in general dislike change, the cost of perpetual software and hardware upgrades will force management to consider SaaS as a replacement.

The Cloud Continues to Disrupt: The Cloud offers infinite innovation and undeniable savings. Companies that do not deploy or embrace the Cloud in some fashion will be left in the dust.

Change Management: Times, they are a changin'... Especially as it relates to technology. Due to technological innovation, businesses will learn that they need to spend money and resources to manage the shift in technology and stay ahead of the curve.

Software Integration Will Skyrocket: Integrating software applications has always been expensive to buy and complex to maintain. Cloud-based application programming interfaces (API's) are inexpensive and easy to connect and will hasten the stampede to Cloud services. In a few years, all your software will be integrated and connected.

The Changing Role of Customer Service: Customer service will become more automated, yet more personal. You heard me right. Seemingly diametrically opposed tenets, the more information that we capture from our customer interactions, the easier it is to provide highly customized support. Smart companies will use this “data mining” to provide pro-active “Always Be Helping” support.

Remote Working:Once an organization moves its data and communications into the Cloud, most office jobs can be done remotely. Although the concept has been around for quite a while, the Cloud makes it easy and inexpensive. Employers and employees alike win big in cost and time savings. Personally, TeleDynamic is in the middle of making the leap. Has your company been contemplating the switch, too?

“Always On, Always Connected” Backlash:People need downtime and a break from the continuous stimulus of being connected in real-time to everything. After reading this, you may need a break yourself. Sometimes the endless stream of newness is enough to make a robot cry. Look for professionals to continue to strive for a complete work-life balance.

So, what do you think about my predictions in business and technology in 2015? Obviously, they all won’t happen overnight and some may not happen at all. However, ignoring these concepts, shifts, and business trends is a sure-fire recipe for falling behind your competitors and becoming less responsive to your customers.

We’ll do this again next year and we’ll add a scoreboard to see how well I did in my prognostications.

About the Author

Randy Kremlacek

President | Head Chef

Randy Kremlacek is President and Head Chef of TeleDynamic Communications. TeleDynamic provides VoIP service, business phone systems, Virtual PBX, and SIP Trunking. Randy is a 25+ year veteran in the business and prides himself on knowing the small business phone system industry as well as he knows his way around his kitchen. READ MORE